Tuesday, July 12, 2005

(from W Feature Story on Style.com )
On the day we meet, Holmes tells me she's not a Scientologist. (Three days later, in Europe, she will announce that she has converted.) 'You know, it's really exciting,' the actress says of the religion. 'I just started auditing'—Scientology's word for receiving spiritual counseling—'and I'm taking some courses, and I really like it. I feel it's really helping. What I like about it is that, you know, I was raised Catholic, and you can be a Catholic and a Scientologist, Jewish and a Scientologist.' Holmes went to Notre Dame Academy, a Catholic high school in Toledo, and was accepted at Columbia University before she landed the role of the lovelorn tomboy Joey Potter on Dawson's Creek. Her parents, devout Catholics, are said to be a weekly fixture at Christ the King church in Toledo. 'I'm learning,' Holmes says, as the makeup artist applies eye shadow, 'to celebrate my own spirit, my own being.'

No pressure from Cruise, she swears: 'That's really ludicrous because, I mean, you have to know Tom. He is the most loving, generous man who… first of all, he wants to help people. He doesn't put pressure on people. He is the kindest, smartest, most adoring man. It's a pleasure and a privilege to be with him.'

As if that weren't already perfectly clear, just then a security guard lumbers into the dressing room and presents Holmes with a giant silver box tied in a thick purple ribbon. A small crowd gathers to watch her gleefully tear open the package and pluck out a Chanel diamond necklace—a gift, naturally, from Cruise. 'He's my man! He's my man!' she screams, then jumps up on her chair to do an impression of her fiancé's now-famous sofa shtick from Oprah.

People begin to cheer. 'This is your moment!' cries the manicurist.

'I can do splits too,' Holmes says, jumping down and splaying herself across the floor. On that note, I suggest, we should probably get the photo shoot started." (more at Link)
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